A friend (without much spiritual background) asked me
recently what's the difference between my experience and his experience.
What does awakening entail, experientially? In order words, what is the
feeling of it like? (Note that I am recalling from that conversation,
this isn't the exact words)
I answered: Here there is a complete absence of any sense of sense of self, body, sense faculties, objects, boundaries, and an absence of any sense of locality. Whereas those are present in experience for you.
I answered: Here there is a complete absence of any sense of sense of self, body, sense faculties, objects, boundaries, and an absence of any sense of locality. Whereas those are present in experience for you.
For example when I'm driving the car, there is no sense at all of being
a driver located in the driver seat. The whole infinite field
(including trees, roads and traffic lights) is simply experiencing
itself and reacting seamlessly and spontaneously with no sense of
distance (no sense of a me here encountering and reacting to things 'out
there'). Presencing (vivid experience) "stands out" as the "concrete
textures and details" of everything when not a trace of self remains.
Everything shimmers with a vivid intensity of pure aliveness and
presence.
(And even those appearances cannot be pinned down as "it is here" or "it
is there" as they are simply and merely appearing due to conditions,
like reflections of a moon on water. There is no intrinsic existence of a
phenomenal appearance to be found.
But as Thusness said, "When you are luminous and transparent, don't think of dependent origination or emptiness, that is post-equipoise. When hearing sound, like the sound of flowing water and chirping bird, it is as if you are there. It should be non-conceptual, no sense of body or me, transparent, as if the sensations stand out. You must always have some quality time into this state of anatta. Means you cannot keep losing yourself in verbal thoughts, you got to have quality hours dedicated to relaxation and experience fully without self, without reservation.")
He asked: If you don't experience locality, why do you like to travel to different places? Doesn't non locality mean you can teleport anywhere since you are not located or fixed anywhere? Since you are nowhere and already everywhere, why do you need to travel? Why did you visit a music festival (Tomorrowland) in your recent trip to Europe?
I answered: I still enjoy experiencing new stuff sometimes. Non locality is not teleportation, it means there is no locality or reference point to which a fixed subject (experiencer/self) or an object exists. Appearance 'knows' from itself without a knower behind. It does not mean that because there is no self besides everything that appears, I am everywhere in the world all at once, like including Antarctica. Specific appearances only appear in the presence of specific conditions. Ever-fresh phenomenal appearances manifest due to certain conditions including travel, etc. The experience of a music festival requires conditions like international DJs playing music, the communal setting of massive numbers of people coming together, so on and so forth.
But as Thusness said, "When you are luminous and transparent, don't think of dependent origination or emptiness, that is post-equipoise. When hearing sound, like the sound of flowing water and chirping bird, it is as if you are there. It should be non-conceptual, no sense of body or me, transparent, as if the sensations stand out. You must always have some quality time into this state of anatta. Means you cannot keep losing yourself in verbal thoughts, you got to have quality hours dedicated to relaxation and experience fully without self, without reservation.")